Benefits of Energy-from-Waste

Energy-from-Waste (EfW) is widely recognized as a technology that can help mitigate climate change. This is because the waste combusted at a EfW facility doesn’t generate methane, as it would at a landfill; the metals that would have been sent to the landfill are recovered for recycling instead of being thrown out; and the electricity generated offsets the greenhouse gases that would otherwise have been generated from coal and natural gas plants. EfW facilities are the only form of energy generation that actually reduces greenhouse gases.

Additionally, the energy produced at energy-from-waste facilities is reliable baseload power, meaning that it is generated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That provides the opportunity to not only sell electricity onto the grid, but also provide steam delivered to houses, public buildings and industry.

The average European household produces enough non-recyclable residual waste to fill Wembley Stadium twice every week. The CEWEP states that by diverting all of the UK's and Europe's residual waste from landfill to EfW facilities would save estimated 92 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the EU. -